


Family

by celeste9



Series: Promise [38]
Category: Primeval
Genre: Family, Hurt/Comfort, Kid Fic, M/M, Married Couple, Minor Injuries, Rugby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-27
Updated: 2014-10-27
Packaged: 2018-02-22 21:02:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2521721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celeste9/pseuds/celeste9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Becker is injured during an incursion, he tries to keep Lester's kids from finding out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family

**Author's Note:**

  * For [deinonychus_1](https://archiveofourown.org/users/deinonychus_1/gifts).



> Happy birthday to deinonychus_1! I have now made myself a liar and written married Becker and Lester to continue the series that I was meant to be done with, but, you did ask very nicely and I know you enjoy Becker's continuing adventures with David. *g* For 'siblings' on my Primeval bingo card and 'hiding an injury/illness' on my hc_bingo card. Thanks to fredbassett for the beta!

“Becker broke a rib,” Jess said over comms.

Not helpfully, Becker might add, as surely the only person she would be telling that to was Lester.

“I haven’t broken anything,” Becker insisted, wincing as Bartlett, the medic, prodded him some more. “If you’ll recall, I definitely know what a broken rib feels like.”

There was silence.

“Too soon? Really?” Honestly, that had been ages ago, and it wasn’t as if Becker had _actually_ died.

“Talk to your husband, Becker, I can’t deal with you two,” Jess said, and then Lester’s voice came through.

“Safe as a herd of cattle, were they?”

“Cattle are vicious,” Becker muttered.

“The fact that you are aware of that makes this even more idiotic.”

“It grazed me, that’s all.”

“And why were you near enough to get... grazed?” Lester’s emphasis on the last word was purely distasteful.

“There was a kid, wasn’t there? He didn’t know any better, he ran from his parents to get a closer look.”

When Lester spoke again, he still sounded weary and annoyed, but also the tiniest bit fond. So business as usual, then. “Always have to play the hero, don’t you, Becker? Rescuing every pretty girl and tiny tot you see?”

“That’s why you love me?” Becker tried.

“No need to get soppy,” Lester said, and Becker could picture the way his lips would purse and he’d get that little line between his eyes.

The next voice Becker heard belonged to Jess. “You’re both idiots, the pair of you,” she announced.

“Ow,” Becker said, as Bartlett finally finished torturing - sorry, _examining_ him.

“You’re right, though,” the medic said, tossing Becker’s shirt (ruined, by the way, as Bartlett had cut it off rather than watch Becker struggle out of it) at him. “No fracture, though of course an X-ray would confirm.”

“I don’t need an X-ray,” Becker said.

“You tell sir that yourself then, boss,” Bartlett said cheerfully.

-

Becker got the X-ray. No broken ribs. He allowed himself to feel vindicated, though he kept it to himself.

Upon arriving home, Becker arranged himself somewhat gingerly on the sofa, though the painkillers had at least dulled the worst of it. Lester had gone off somewhere but he reappeared with a bag of ice, Sid and Nancy following at his heels.

“Dragged yourselves awake, have you?” Becker said.

The diictodons nipped at his outstretched fingers before ignoring him in favour of rolling about on the floor and wrestling with each other.

Lester tossed the ice into Becker’s lap.

“Hey,” Becker protested. Even through the layer of his trousers, ice wasn’t something he appreciated having so near to his privates. 

“It will help,” Lester said, and sat down next to Becker.

“I know how this goes, no need to lecture.” Nevertheless Becker pressed the ice to his chest.

He had just leaned his head back, closing his eyes, when Lester said, “The children are visiting this weekend.”

“I remember.”

“Perhaps we should reschedule.”

“What? Why?” Becker turned his head to look at Lester.

Lester’s gaze dropped pointedly to Becker’s chest and then rose back up to his face.

“It’s only a couple of bruised ribs. If we rescheduled every time I wasn’t perfectly healthy we would never see the kids at all.”

Some odd, indecipherable emotion flickered across Lester’s expression. Okay, well, tact had never been Becker’s best quality.

“David would be disappointed,” Becker said instead.

Now Lester was nearly smiling. “Right. David would be sodisappointed.”

Becker closed his eyes again. Whatever. He would be. “I promised Henry we could play rugby, practice a few moves.”

“With bruised ribs? Hils, that is a terrible idea.”

“It’s a few days away still. By the weekend the worst of it will have passed,” Becker said, ignoring Lester’s snort of disbelief. “Come on, stop interrogating me, this is the part where you’re supposed to comfort me in my time of need, husband.”

“Is it?”

“Yes, so, get on with it.”

Becker felt the pressure as Lester shifted on the sofa and then he felt Lester’s hand, lightly patting him on the head.

“There, how’s that? Comforted, pet?”

“I hate you so much,” Becker said.

-

On Saturday, Becker woke to the sound of voices.

“He’s sleeping!”

“Perhaps they had a late night.”

“Gross.”

“He needs to get up, I’m gonna wake him up.”

“David, that’s terribly rude, you know better-- David, don’t.”

Becker was fully awake by the time David flung himself onto the sofa, bouncing. He tried to bottle his wince, hissing softly between his teeth.

“We’re here, Hils!” David announced.

“I think he noticed,” Lester said, and gently - mostly - nudged David away from where he was leaning into Becker.

“Sorry,” Becker said, his smile mostly natural. “I suppose I fell asleep. I was going to pick you up from the train.”

“Do you want us to say we appreciate the thought?” Julia asked.

Henry, who as far as Becker had seen hadn’t yet looked up from his phone, snorted.

“You should have woken me,” Becker said to Lester.

“Why ever would I have done that? You’re always so much more pleasant when you’re asleep, dear.”

David laughed.

Becker frowned, crossing his arms in front of his chest, though the movement still wasn’t entirely comfortable. “I suppose that’s fair, as I find you much more pleasant when you don’t speak.”

“God, you’re so dysfunctional,” Julia said, and went to drop her bag off in the study down the hall.

“Becker,” Henry said, managing to divert attention from his no doubt incredibly fascinating social life for a brief moment. “Are we still on for rugby? I brought my shoes.”

“Great, we can go after lunch,” Becker said, and pretended he didn’t notice the wave of disapproval radiating off of Lester.

-

 _I’m getting old,_ Becker thought as Henry tackled him to the grass. His head thumped against the ground and he bit his tongue to keep from swearing as the landing jostled his bruised ribs even more than the running had. In the background he could hear Julia and David laughing.

Henry pushed himself back, settling on his heels. There was a smudge of dirt on his face to go along with the mud splattered over the rest of him. “Sorry,” he said.

“No, that was good. Just like I taught you.”

Becker remained where he was while Henry got back up, standing over him. “Becker? Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah. Fine. I’m, uh... I just need to lie here for a bit.” Becker gazed up at the blue sky until a shadow infringed on his view.

Lester was frowning down at him, arms crossed. “Idiot,” he said.

In a matter of seconds, Becker was surrounded by a crowd of Lesters.

“What’s wrong with him?” David asked.

“What isn’t?” Lester knelt down onto the ground and started to help Becker to his feet, heedless of the mud that would no doubt be seeping through the knees of his clean trousers.

“Love you, too, sweetie,” Becker said, swallowing the indignity of needing assistance. Bloody chest hurt like anything.

“What was it this time?” Julia’s tone left no room for denial. “Dilophosaurus? Sabre-toothed cat?”

“Prehistoric cow.” Lester’s eyebrows were drawn together.

Becker sighed. No point pretending now. “I’ll tell you the whole story when we get back.”

-

“Shouldn’t you be in a hospital?” 

The question came from David, who was sitting near enough to Becker on the sofa that he was practically in Becker’s lap. The years since Becker had first met him hadn’t yet put a dent in his affinity for touch, and Becker secretly hoped they never would. The twins, on the other hand, had remained standing throughout Becker’s retelling of the incursion from earlier in the week, looming somewhat threateningly.

“No, I’m fine, really,” Becker said. “I’m just going to be sore for a few weeks, that’s all.” He studiously avoided looking in the direction of Lester, who had sat himself some distance away from them but was still plainly listening to every word.

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

 _To avoid the look on David’s face,_ Becker thought, though of course he couldn’t say that. “I didn’t want to make a fuss.”

“We wouldn’t have made a fuss,” Henry said in a patronising tone that rivaled his father’s. “I wouldn’t have tried so hard to knock you into the dirt, though.”

“Yeah, that was dumb,” Julia said, and Becker could practically feel Lester’s proud approval from across the room. “Why did you agree to that when you’d just been injured?”

“I…” Okay, maybe it had been a really dumb idea. “I suppose I didn’t want you to know I was hurt.”

“Julia’s right,” David agreed. “That’s dumb.”

Except now Julia was watching him entirely too shrewdly. Becker waited resignedly for her analysis but she didn’t say anything.

David did, though. “Are you sure you shouldn’t be in a hospital?” His eyes drifted down to Becker’s chest and then back up to his face. “Last time you hurt your ribs you were in a hospital and Mum said you almost died.”

“It’s not like that,” Becker said, wondering if he should try to bring David in for a hug or something. He was so bad at this, and the expression on David’s face made him feel terrible. 

“If it isn’t anything serious, you should have told us.” Julia sounded accusatory, which was likely attributable to said expression on David’s face. “And even if it were, you should have told us that, too.”

“I didn’t want you to worry.”

Now Julia finally sat down on the sofa, on Becker’s other side, while Henry leaned his butt against the arm. “So you thought we would be stupid enough not to notice.”

“No, I--”

“I thought we were family now, Hils,” David said. “Family tells each other when they’re hurt.”

In point of fact, Becker would only tell his mum he was hurt if and when he was actually dying, but obviously that would be the wrong thing to say at the moment. “We are family, David. But I didn’t… I know that what we do, your dad and me, it can be scary, and I didn’t want to… I don’t know, I thought I was protecting you, or something. It was stupid. I’m sorry.”

When Julia looked at him, Becker knew he had better brace himself for the analysis. 

“We aren’t babies,” she said, “so don’t treat us as if we were. We do get scared for Dad, after what’s happened, and we get scared for you, because you’re our family, too. But pretending like things are okay when they aren’t doesn’t help. It doesn’t make us worry less. It only makes us afraid that bad things will happen and you’re going to leave us in the dark, not knowing. You have to trust us, so that we can trust you.”

Becker felt embarrassed and shamefaced and hoped that it didn’t show. He met Lester’s eyes for a second before he turned back to the kids. “You’re right, and I’m sorry. I’m… This is all new to me, and you’ll have to forgive me my mistakes. I’m trying.”

Julia nodded once, and kissed him on his cheek.

“I hope you don’t expect me to do that as well,” Henry said, and suddenly everything felt easier.

“Well, glad that’s all settled,” Lester said, standing up and walking towards them. “Now, Henry, Becker, if you’ve got mud on my white sofa we will be having words.”

Henry sprang guiltily away from where he had been leaning up against the sofa and Becker felt himself smile a little. Odd and dysfunctional as it may have been, this was his family now, and he was going to make it work.

No matter how many mistakes he made before he got it right.

**_End_ **


End file.
